Tuesday, September 1, 2009

SPEED Adds Benson To Truck Series Telecasts

Fan favorite Johnny Benson has been added to three upcoming Camping World Truck Series telecasts on SPEED. Benson will join Rick Allen and Phil Parsons on the dates where regular analyst Michael Waltrip has a Sprint Cup Series conflict.

The first race for Benson with SPEED will be this Saturday night in Iowa. His remaining races will be Gateway in St. Louis on Sept. 12 and Las Vegas on Sept. 26.

Waltrip was added to the truck series broadcast booth several seasons ago to add some spark to the telecasts. Fans posting at TDP continue to be divided by his presence on the races, but the reviews for the last CWTS event were overwhelmingly favorable.

Benson was a staple on Monday night for many years as SpeedVision and then SPEED continued to carry a one hour program about NASCAR. Both Benson and host Allen Bestwick were suddenly released from the series after a change in SPEED's production management.

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This is wonderful news! JB is an awesome addition to any broadcast for the very reason that the man knows that NASCAR rule book and can quote it. Whenever there is a caution or a penalty he can tell you exactly why. He's great! Now I will make an extra effort to catch the truck races.

Good for Johnny, he deserves it. It was sad, his picture of him winning the championship was on the tickets for the truck race in Chicago this past Friday and hes not even on the racetrack now.. but this is good for him!

I am extremely pleased that JB is gong to get this opportunity. I understand the reservations of those who commented that he might not bring "excitement" to the booth considering his very mellow and sometimes downright quiet demeanor on the old IWC/INC shows. To that I would counter with let's let Johnny be Johnny and see how it turns out. Not everybody has to act like a giggly little schoolgirl to be a good color commentator. ;-) If Benson brings good, concise observations to fill in what we cannot perceive from the pictures alone, what more could we ask when the other two in the booth supply more than enough outward (and genuine) "enthusiasm?"

The main thing will be this. If JB is not good in the booth no matter how much most NASCAR fans like and respect him, will Speed do the right thing and not ask him to return...you know, unlike a big mistake that another network has been making for three years now with a guy we all like and respect but who is boring most of us to tears. ;-)

It will be nice having Johnny instead of that dumbbell Waltrip. Even if JB only adds a little to the broadcast , it will be more than the man he replaces. I'm sure of one thing, the SPEED/FOX execs who hire the Waltrips don't watch all of the shows they are on because if they did , they too would be sick of them, period.